The new sound of the millennium is arguably Dubstep, a genre that is quickly taking the world’s music scene.  Dubstep’s overall sound has been described as “tightly coiled productions with overwhelming bass lines and reverberant drum patterns, clipped samples, and occasional vocals,” on allmusic.com.

Dubstep has deviated from and is a manifestation of several different genres including elements of drum’n’ bass, techno, and dub, a subgenre stemming from reggae.

Dubstep is often known to sample or superimpose popular tracks against oscillating bass lines ranging from bites from various speeches throughout history to more contemporary music such as house, rap, rock, jazz and hip-hop.

Dubstep in many ways is an art where music jockeys are able to take a song or a concept and render their interpretation of that song or concept by manipulating the sound. The audience perceives the music and expresses themselves through an interpretive form of dance that corroborates with the climatic rise and fall of dropping bass lines.

Mainstream artists are even begging to incorporate more bass-heavy and house-like sounds in their songs. Listeners of  Hot 99.5 in the past few months know this. Artists like Britney Spears make a pathetic attempt at the new sound of the millennium like in her new song “Hold It Against Me.”

While it’s not the greatest dubstep, (for great dubstep listen to Skrillex, Rusko, Datsik, or Nero), it’s a clear indication of the influence that dubstep has had on the music scene over the past decade.

Dubstep in the past nine years of existence has spread far and wide since its original germination in London, England. Dubstep has completely created a whole new subculture which can now be found in almost every corner of the world. Although for the most part Dubstep’s popularity is small, it is also ever growing, offering another example of how music can define society and culture.